Progression in Sword x Staff runs on a handful of overlapping resources, and almost every wall you hit late-game traces back to one of them. Coins, Wood, Stone, Ore, Battle Essence, EXP, Gear, and Dawnium each have specific farm spots, and mixing them up wastes stamina and refresh costs you cannot easily recover.
Core resources and what they upgrade
Each resource feeds a different progression system. Knowing which currency unlocks which power spike is the difference between steady growth and getting stuck for days on a single bottleneck.
| Resource | Primary use |
|---|---|
| Coins (Rolla) | Home furniture upgrades |
| Wood | Home furniture upgrades |
| Stone | Home furniture upgrades |
| Raw Ore / Refined Ore | Gear enhancement |
| Battle Essence | Skill upgrades |
| EXP | Character level and class rank |
| Gear | Combat power through equipment |
| Dawnium | Extra dungeon attempts, shop refreshes, merchants, account upgrades |
| Luminium | Paid-only currency from the Mall; converts 1:1 to Dawnium |
Luminium cannot be farmed. It only comes from real-money purchases and converts to Dawnium at a flat 1:1 rate, so any "free Luminium" advice is wrong.
How to farm Dawnium
Dawnium is the premium currency you will burn on extra Daily Dungeon attempts, Material Realm refreshes, Vault items, and Wheel of Destiny merchants. Spending it early on cosmetic shop refreshes is the single most common F2P mistake.
Daily activities. Daily Dungeons, Material Realms, Guild tasks, Arena matches, and event missions each drop small amounts of Dawnium that stack into roughly 100+ per day for active players. Skipping a day or two is forgivable, but a full week off slows your account noticeably.
Story and milestones. Main quests, achievements, and feature unlocks (Guild, Arena, Vendor Booth, Material Realms) hand out one-time Dawnium chunks. Pushing combat power to unlock the next system is usually more efficient than re-farming a cleared zone.
Events. Login campaigns, beginner events, and launch celebrations produce the biggest single spikes. Most reward tracks only ask for simple daily logins or low-effort tasks, so check the event tab during every session.
Gift codes. Open the Home menu, go to User Center, tap Gift Code, paste the code exactly, and claim the reward from your mailbox. New codes appear during events and patch updates, so checking weekly is enough.
Luminium conversion. Spenders can convert Luminium to Dawnium 1:1. Save converted Dawnium for Destiny Fruit merchants and Daily Dungeon extra attempts rather than random shop stock.
Coins, Wood, and Stone
These three feed every Home furniture upgrade, which in turn boosts idle production rates and EXP gains. The fastest source is the Cart, which generates them passively whether you are online or not.
Reinvesting Cart yields into Cart upgrades is the highest-return early loop in the game. World-map pickups in stacks on the ground supplement that income and reset over time, so sweep new zones when you unlock them.
Ore farming
Ore comes in tiers, with Raw Ore at the bottom and Refined Ore and higher rarities feeding endgame gear enhancement. Three sources matter.
| Source | Notes |
|---|---|
| Fantasia Ascent (Moonveild Woods) | Best Ore source overall; higher difficulty floors drop more Ore and better rarities. Difficulty is gated by Combat Power. |
| Quests | Daily Quests and Guidance Quests reliably reward Ore alongside other progression items. |
| The Cart | Produces Raw Ore from Level 3 onward; rarity and quantity scale with Cart level. |
| Material Realms (Iron Hammer) | Mine Iron Ore in Ironvein Pit using Iron Hammers from shops or Delegate Tasks. |
| Material Realms (Gold Pickaxe) | Mine Gold Ore in Gilded Depths with Gold Pickaxes obtained the same way. |
For Material Realms, F2P players should buy 2 extra attempts in each of the four realms per day. Spenders typically run 4/2/4/4 because Raw Ore and Chrono Sand drain fastest. Extra attempt costs scale incrementally: 60, 60, 100, 100, 150, 150, 200, 200, 250, 300 Dawnium.
Battle Essence
Battle Essence is the skill upgrade currency, and skill power scales harder than gear at most points in progression. Two reliable sources cover almost all daily demand.
Material Realms (Dread Hollow). Use Worn Knuckles to fight monsters in Dread Hollow, which unlocks after clearing Verdantglade IV. This is the bulk source once your CP can sustain extra attempts.
The Cart. Starting at Cart Level 3, Battle Essence drips in passively. Higher Cart levels meaningfully increase the rate, which is why Cart upgrades pay back faster than they look.
EXP and character leveling
EXP determines which stages you can clear, which class ranks you can pursue, and what Material Realm difficulty is available. Sources are deliberately limited.
The Bed in Home is the primary source. Free speed-ups plus Temporal Crystals can claim up to two hours of stored EXP per use. The Bed does not upgrade with Gold or Dawnium; you raise it by activating Lost Goddess Statues across the world map. Each statue also clears local fog and increases idle drop efficiency, so prioritize 100% map completion.
Map expedition is the secondary source. Clearing previously unexplored areas grants EXP based on how much you reveal, but it is gated by Combat Power.
Gear drops
Most ground-pickup gear is filler. The pieces worth chasing come from two places.
Boss dungeons and Daily Dungeons. Multi-player raid stages reward gear based on damage contribution, with Auroradrasil being one of the standout sources. Daily Dungeons cap at two extra purchasable attempts per day at 100 and 150 Dawnium, and maxing those out is one of the highest-priority Dawnium sinks because dungeon shards gate top-rarity gear.
The Cart at Level 10+. Once the Cart reaches Level 10, it produces Gear passively. Quantities are modest, but it costs nothing beyond the upgrade investment.
Daily spending priorities
The order in which you spend Dawnium matters more than the total you accumulate. A workable F2P routine looks like this.
| Priority | Activity | F2P spend | Spender spend |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daily Dungeon extra attempts | Both (100 + 150) | Both |
| 2 | Material Realms extra attempts | 2/2/2/2 | 4/2/4/4 or more |
| 3 | Kingdom Shop General tab | Refresh until budget runs out, 3x minimum | Refresh aggressively |
| 4 | Vault tab essentials | Free Stamina, Material Realm tools, Epic Auroral Badges | Add Refined Ore, discounted Stellatie |
| 5 | Arena extra fights | 2 per day (10–15 Dawnium each) | Max refresh during season resets |
| 6 | Guild donations | Free + 2 paid | Push higher tiers |
| 7 | Destiny Fruit merchants | Save 200 Dawnium reserve | Spend freely on rare merchant stock |
Arena extra fights scale at 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 60, 80, 100 Dawnium. The currency you earn feeds the Arena exchange shop, which is why even PvP-averse players benefit from running two daily matches.
Things to avoid
Skip 24-hour guild farm-rate boost items as F2P. They are expensive for what they provide. In the Vendor Booth, only Withering Potions are worth committing to early in the first two tabs; save Abundance Leaf for the later tabs where value is much higher. In the Auction House, browse daily but do not feel obligated to bid unless something directly fills a current bottleneck.
The biggest long-term mistake is splitting Dawnium across every system at once. Lock in Daily Dungeons and Material Realms first, then layer the rest in once those are stable.